In this post I intend to discuss the recent controversy surrounding the reality show Duck Dynasty. Before I get there, though, I want to first discuss the season of Advent and its message of penitence. So please, if you're here for the Duck Dynasty bit, bear with me for a few paragraphs.
Advent: the Season of Penitence
In the Christian calendar, the four weeks leading up to Christmas are known as Advent. While most evangelical churches use this season merely to give structure to their month-long build-up to Christmas, Advent has its own message that is often lost in the candle-lighting. Advent is the season in which we remember the way God prepared his people for the first coming of the Messiah through the prophets. Traditional Advent readings include passages from the Book of Isaiah and the teachings of John the Baptist to remind us of this. The purpose of this reflection is to help us to prepare for the second coming of the Messiah at the end of time. The implication is that what the prophets taught the people of Israel about preparing for Christ is relevant to the way we prepare for Him now.
A key part of this message is the importance of penitence. This is an especially-important message for the Evangelical Church because we have systematically exorcised any element of penitence from our Sunday-morning worship (otherwise known as liturgy). John the Baptist illustrates this theme very well. In the Gospel of Luke we hear John proclaim to the Jews "a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins" (Luke 3:3, ESV). Preparation for the Messiah begins with repentance. After hearing him preach, however, the Jews have another question for John: "what then shall we do?" (v. 10). John's response is a description of the actions of penitence:
“Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.” Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.” Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.” (v. 11-14).
What John is calling the Jews to do here is first to help the needy (sharing your tunic), but then also to refrain from oppressing those around you. The constant message of the prophets to the people of Israel was that they had failed to care for the oppressed, the widow, the orphan, the alien, etc. God called them to be generous to the needy, and instead they oppressed them. Now, keep in mind, the Jews of John's time were an occupied people, being oppressed in their own right by the Romans. But even though much of his audience probably expected John to tell them to rise up against the Romans, instead he told them to look to their own actions, the way they oppressed others themselves. This is penitence: once we've recognized our own sinful nature, we must repent of it by changing our behavior. A penitent heart will not focus on the way it is being oppressed because it is more concerned with the oppression of others.
Alright, Now for Duck Dynasty
Here's the thing that bugs me about this whole controversy. The cast members of Duck Dynasty, as well as the conservatives who support them and the politicians and talking heads who profit from being outraged, have all done an excellent job of acting oppressed. It is their constitutional right, they argue, to voice their beliefs, and how dare A&E punish this man for speaking the truth! This argument, of course, has absolutely no legal basis--you have the right to free speech, but you are not entitled to a reality show (And thank Heavens for that!), and A&E has the right to control their own programming. But what bugs me isn't the faulty understanding of constitutional rights. What bugs me is how this man's comments, and even more so the reaction from his fans and supporters, shows a lack of penitence.
The Duck Dynasty partisans may feel like they are the oppressed party, but that is simply not true. Remember what Advent teaches us: look first to the victims of your own oppression. And in the case of Homosexuality, the American Church MUST recognize that we have victimized homosexuals. For years we have been willing to overlook pretty much every other sexual sin in our own congregants (premarital sex, adultery, etc.) and yet we have no tolerance for people who identify as homosexual--even chaste homosexuals, who have committed no sin according to scripture. How easily we forget that the Bible spends much more time condemning remarriage after divorce than it ever does homosexuality! Through our lack of Christian love and compassion we have made victims of countless homosexuals in the Church. If we are to approach the issue of homosexuality with a Christian attitude of humility and penitence, then this is what we must have in mind when we speak publicly about the issue.
My Facebook feed is full of people who are outraged about our "PC culture," in which they feel attacked for speaking their mind because it might offend someone. For those of you who feel that way, let me ask you this: as Christians, shouldn't we already care about whether our words will hurt other people, even without a "PC culture?" And if we can't speak the truth of the Gospel without offending other people, should we automatically assume that they are the problem? Because it seems to me that in this case, we are the problem. It does not strike me as very Christian for us to blame others for hearing our message as hateful, when historically we have spoken our message with so much hate. Can you really blame a victim of abuse if they flinch when you raise your hand? ESPECIALLY if you are the one who abused them? Our master said to us that "By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:35). It occurs to me that we have given the homosexual community little reason to believe that we are followers of Jesus.
No doubt some of you may be thinking, "But I haven't been hateful to homosexuals. My Church hasn't victimized people who come out of the closet." That may be true (Then again, it may not. The potential abuser is not the one who gets to decide if they've been abusive). Even so, any worthwhile theology of the Church recognizes that we are one body, and we all bear the responsibility of repairing the damage our churches have done. Of course, it is true that in recent years some churches have taken some steps to change their treatment of homosexuals. Many Evangelicals now espouse a much more compassionate attitude toward homosexuals (though whether that attitude is maintained when they are actually face-to-face with a homosexual remains to be seen). But this does not erase the sins of our past. Isn't it true that, even when God forgets our sin, He still expects us to repair the damage we have caused? We may be learning to be more compassionate, but we must still be penitent.
So finally, what does penitence look like? For tax collectors, it meant returning stolen money. For soldiers it meant being honorable and just to the people. For American Christians in the twenty-first century, it means that we must be sympathetic. We must recognize the damage we have done to thousands of earnest people in our pews. We must acknowledge that we have lost the right to act righteous on this issue. A penitent Christian will be careful of what they say, remembering that our doctrines have been used to abuse so many people. Maybe it's not our place to make sweeping declarations about how homosexuality is "what's wrong with this country," when so much of "what's wrong" can rightly be found in the Church. Maybe we shouldn't use homosexuality and bestiality in the same sentence, and when we do slip up maybe we should apologize instead of acting outraged that someone was offended. Ultimately, Christians should care more about the impact our words will have on others than on whether we technically had the right to say them. When we stand before God and he asks us why we so brazenly spoke words that ignored the pain of his children, "I had the right" will not be a sufficient answer.
"Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen."
(Collect for the fourth Sunday of Advent, Book of Common Prayer)
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